A Sociopragmatic Study of the Strategies of Ostensible Invitations in Saudi Arabic

The current study investigated the speech act of ostensible invitations in Saudi Arabic from a sociopragmatic perspective. It was conducted to examine whether Saudi Arabic speakers draw on the same strategies stipulated by Clark and Isaacs (1990) for extending ostensible invitations. Additionally, the study aimed at investigating whether there are Saudi-specific strategies for extending ostensible invitations. To this end, the study examined 37 recalled instances of ostensible invitations provided by Saudi Arabic speakers in the Central Region of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh. The corpus of the study was compiled through face-to-face and written interviews with 37 informants aged between 18 to 60. The collected data was analyzed on the basis of Clark and Isaacs’s seven strategies for establishing ostensible invitations. Results showed that Saudi Arabic speakers utilize the seven strategies proposed by Clark and Isaacs for extending ostensible invitations, yet with relative weight. The most frequently used strategies by Saudi Arabic speakers to issue ostensible invitations in the collected exchanges were the absence of persistence, which was detected in (86%) of the exchanges, and the absence of motivating the invitee, which was used in (73%) of the collected ostensible invitations. Those were followed in order of frequency by vague arrangements (59%), implausibility (49%), inappropriate cues (19%), solicitation (14%), and hedging (5%). In addition to Clark and Isaacs’s proposed strategies, the study found that three more strategies are employed by Saudi Arabic speakers to highlight the ostensibility of their invitations which are: using intensifying and empty swearing devices (e.g., d̪ˁaroori, laazem, wallah, etc.) (27%), extending the invitation in the form of a question (5%), and asking someone else to extend the invitation on behalf of the inviter (5%), the last of which seems to be peculiar to Saudi Arabic speakers.